French Visa for Indians in 48 Hours from January 2015

French Ambassador to India, Francois Richier, made an announcement earlier this month that Indian Travellers to France will be issued a visa in 48 hours, compared to the current process time of 15 days. The move will come into effect from January, 2015.

France and India are working collaboratively to remove further visa restrictions, for a free two way travel for nationals of both the countries. Recent visit of French foreign minister Laurent Fabius’ is a proof of that. The decision to slash the visa process time from 15 days to 48 hours comes through during his recent visit.

Indians are issued an approximate 4,88,000 Schengen visas each year, out of which France accounts to 80,000.

Furthermore, France is also in process of launching a mobile app “Chalo Paris” for encouraging easy travel among Indians. Regarding the same, embassy spokesperson, Arnaud Mentre said “It will comprise functionalities such as lists of vegetarian restaurants, translators, getaways and excursions, transport etc. In September, the Paris version will be available and, next year, an all-France version. To our knowledge, it is the first app specifically designed for a nationality (Indian tourists)?.”

France welcomed over 83 million foreign tourists last year, of which 300,000 were Indians. The most number i.e. 1.5 million however came from China. To reduce the gap between the number of visitors from India and China, France is determined to make some significant amendments for the Indian travellers.

Source: Times of India

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